Live at the coast? Just visiting? You can help keep the
beach clean by removing human-made debris that washes up. Everyone is talking
about debris from the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, and we are seeing
plenty of that material now, but the truth is debris lands on our shores all
year long from every source imaginable. No matter where it came from, you have
a chance to protect Oregon’s beaches.
What can you do to help? Depends on what you find:

Litter and other typical marine debris.

Examples:
Plastic bottles, aluminum cans, buoys, Styrofoam.

If practical, we encourage you to
remove small debris and recycle as much of it as possible. You can get an
official beach cleanup bag from any coastal state park office. Don’t break up chunks
of foam if you can help it, and tie your bag shut when full. Leave the bag near
the parking lot garbage cans or trailhead if you can. If you can’t remove the
debris from the beach by hand, please move it far enough away from the water so
it doesn’t wash back out at high tide. If you see a significant amount of
debris, or it is too large to move by hand, report it by email with the date,
location and photos to beach.debris@state.or.us. If the debris has plants or animals growing on it, throw it away in a garbage
can or landfill, or move it above the high tide line and report it.

Call 911 in an emergency. If the
debris is a hazard to navigation, call 211 while you’re on the coast and you
will be connected with the US Coast Guard. Do not attempt to move or remove
vessels.

Mementos or possessions.Examples:
Items with unique identifiers, names, or markings.

If an item can 1) be traced back to
an individual or group and 2) has personal or monetary value, call 211 while
you're on the coast to report it or send an email to beach.debris@state.or.us so we can
make arrangements to possibly return items to Japan.

Call 211 while you're on the coast
and you will be connected to the US Coast Guard’s National Response Center.
Report as much information as possible. Do not touch the item or attempt to
move it.

There are more than a dozen disposal stations on the coast
ready to accept your bagged tsunami debris. If you see debris larger than what
you can put in a bag—tires, refrigerators, and so on—don’t bring it to the
disposal station. Report its location by calling 211.

Want more detail? Read on for Frequently Asked Questions
related to the tsunami debris problem in general, and special questions on
boating, and ecological effects.

Q1. Why could we see
more debris on Oregon’s beaches?A. In March 2011, a tsunami struck the east coast of Japan
and washed a large amount of debris into the Pacific Ocean. While it was easy
to track with aircraft and satellites for the first few days, much of the
debris—70% of it—soon sank. Some of the remaining debris sank later. Most of
the material that is still floating will never reach land, but some of it has
crossed the ocean blown by wind or carried by ocean currents and washed up on
west coast beaches.

Q2. Where is the
debris now?A. It is challenging to tell, exactly. Some of it has
already washed up on the west coast. Tracking the rest out at sea is difficult
because the debris is spread out over an area several times the size of the
United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is
coordinating the effort to use satellites, aircraft and ocean-going vessels to
locate debris.

Q3. Some of it has
reached Oregon?A. Yes, we're seeing rigid foam, plastic, sealed metal
containers, construction lumber, even small fiberglass boats. While most of it
will never reach the shore, and instead get trapped in a large, circular ocean
current between the US mainland and Hawaii, every storm has the potential to
bring more of it onshore. This has always been true of debris out in the ocean, so not
all the debris is from the tsunami. Check out this website for the most updated
model prediction: http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/tsunamidebris/debris_model.html

Q4. How much tsunami
debris are we seeing?A. Telling tsunami debris apart from other kinds of marine
debris isn’t easy. A piece of foam or plastic can really be from anywhere (it
was a real problem even before the tsunami). The two annual beach
cleanups—volunteers coordinated by SOLVE, the Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department, and other partners—regularly remove tons of human-made debris. The
rest of the year, we usually gather up debris and throw it away with the rest
of the refuse left by regular visitors. This mixing means we aren't exactly
sure how much new debris we're seeing. We do know people are paying more
attention to debris now, and that we used to get 5-10 reports a month from
citizens concerned about debris, and that now we get 4-5 times that many by
email and phone. Smaller beach cleanups happen all year
long, and since 2012, organizations like Surfrider have held four times as many
cleanups, collecting five times as much trash (details from a March 2013 Powerpoint).
Some beaches, especially on the north coast, are seeing a larger-than-normal
amount of small plastics bits along the wrack line (read related story in Daily Astorian newspaper). Ocean currents are fickle and complex, so some beaches have seen very
little debris.

On the other hand, we've had a 180+ ton dock, no fewer than
five 15-20' fiberglass boats, and two pieces of a sacred Shinto gate called a torii come ashore since June 2012.

Thousands of Oregonians have made it their family tradition
to help keep beaches clean. Now that people are helping with beach cleanups all
year long, we just need to keep a ready supply of debris bags on hand and
drop-off points funded and open.

Q5. Is tsunami debris
radioactive?A. There is consensus among scientists that it is highly
unlikely the debris from Japan is radioactive. The Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division has
constantly monitored beach sand and water samples for
any higher-than-normal levels of radiation since 2011. Visit the Division's Radiation
Protection Services and check
out their sand monitoring or jump
straight to the data. The results do not show anything out of the ordinary, but monitoring will continue.

Q6. What about toxins
or hazardous liquids? Could the debris contain that?A. Yes, and this has been the case for years. We already see
barrels, bottles and other containers holding oil and other chemicals a couple
times a year. For the proper way to report hazardous beach debris, please see
Question 9 below.

Q7. So if it’s not
radioactive, and no more or less hazardous than what we already see on the
beach, how is tsunami debris different?A. We are seeing uncommon items like small fiberglass boats
and large, plastic net floats. They pose a hazard to navigation, especially to
small vessels. We are also detecting more construction wood, plastic, rigid
foam, and lost fishing gear (photos). It is possible that items
with cultural or personal importance will survive the cross-ocean trip, and we
need to handle this property with respect in cooperation with Japanese
authorities. If you find anobject that
you think might be worth more than $100 or could be personal property, please
turn it in to the nearest Oregon State Park office or local law enforcement, or
keep it safe and call 211 to report it by phone, or send an immediate email
with the date, location where found and a photo to beach.debris@state.or.us.

Q8. Is there a chance
that human remains could be in debris that washes ashore?A. On very rare occasions, human remains are discovered on
the beach following known and unknown incidents, such as accidents and
drownings. It is highly unlikely that any human remains associated with the
Japan tsunami will be located in any debris. There are already processes in
place to deal with human remains found on the beaches. Call 911 or any Oregon
State Police dispatch command center.

Q9. So what do I do
if I see debris on the beach?A. Depends on what and where it is.

If practical, we encourage you to
remove the debris and recycle as much of it as possible. Don’t break up rigid
foam if you can help it, and tie your bag shut when full. Look for a sign near
the parking lot as you head down to the beach that tells you where to leave
debris bags after you fill them. If you can’t remove the debris from the beach
yourself, please move it far enough away from the water so it doesn’t wash back
out at high tide. Use your judgment. And if you see a significant amount of
debris or anything you think might be related to the tsunami, send an email
with the date, location and photos to beach.debris@state.or.us
or call 211 while on the coast.

Exception
for the south coastSome areas of dry sand on the south
coast are closed to protect nests for the threatened western snowy plover. Do not enter these marked closure areas. If marine debris becomes a
problem there, government agencies will organize cleanups when it will be least
harmful to the birds. Snowy plovers are protected under the federal Endangered
Species Act.

Call 911 in an emergency. If the
debris is a hazard to navigation, call 211 while on the coast and you will be
connected with the US Coast Guard. Do not attempt to move or remove vessels.

Mementos or possessions.Examples:
Items with unique identifiers, names, or markings.

If an item can 1) be traced back to
an individual or group and 2) has personal or monetary value, call 211 to
report it or send an email at beach.debris@state.or.us
so we can make appropriate arrangements for return of items to Japan.

Call 211 and you will be connected
to the US Coast Guard’s National Response Center. Report as much information as
possible. Do not touch the item or attempt to move it.

Q10. So what’s Oregon
doing to handle unusual amounts of debris?A. A partnership of agencies and nonprofits are working with
coordination help from Oregon Emergency Management and NOAA—the lead federal
agency—to manage the increase in beach debris. By working together—SOLVE,
Surfrider Foundation, Sea Grant, CoastWatch, Washed Ashore, US Coast Guard and
other federal agencies, your local counties, cities and ports, and state
departments of Environmental Quality, Parks, and Fish and Wildlife—we are all
pitching in to collect debris and dispose of it through recycling and landfills.

A. Safety first! Large marine debris objects from the
tsunami are floating in the North Pacific, and pose a serious hazard to
navigation, especially to small vessels. Watch out for such items, and if you
see one, report immediately to the Coast Guard and provide date, time,
location, and description. If it is just small trash you can safely retrieve
(such as plastic, cans and so on), collect it if safe to do so and dispose of
it at the boat ramp garbage container.

If it’s a large amount of small debris, report it to the
local state park staff or law enforcement, or call 211, or send an email with
the exact location, description and photo (if possible) to beach.debris@state.or.us.

Is it a big oil drum, gas can, propane tank (or other kind
of chemical storage tank), boat or something similar? Call 211 and you’ll be
connected to the U.S. Coast Guard National Response Center (1-800-424-8802). If
the debris is a hazard to navigation, call 211 and you’ll be connected to the
US Coast Guard Pacific Area Command (510-437-3701). Report the location (GPS
latitude/longitude), time and a description of your boat. Do not attempt to
move or remove vessels.

Effects on the ecosystem

Q1. Are there plants
and animals attached to tsunami debris?A. In some cases, yes. A large item such as a dock or a
vessel may contain invasive species, which should be addressed quickly and
effectively. However, a lot of debris that washes ashore is not from the
tsunami: much of the debris that washes ashore every day has living organisms
on it; many of these are species native to the open ocean and do not pose a
threat to the environment.

Q2. What about
species that could be invasive?A. Much of the debris from the tsunami does not carry
invasive species. The items most likely to carry invasive species are those
that were floating in Japan’s waters for some time before the tsunami—docks,
buoys and boats, for example.

Q3. Why are invasive
species a problem?A. Marine invasive species pose a serious threat to Oregon’s
marine ecology and species by competing with native fish and wildlife for food
and habitat and eating them. While not all nonnative species are destructive,
most often, they exist at the expense of native fish and wildlife and the
state’s economy.

Q4. So who is
involved in managing species that come ashore on tsunami debris?A. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife responds to
debris that contains living organisms and is associated with the tsunami that
hit Japan in March 2011. Staff members coordinate with state and federal
agencies; non-governmental organizations; universities; and other stakeholders
and professionals on invasive species issues.

Q5. What should I do
if I find debris and there’s something growing on it?A. It depends on what you find. First, take a photo of the
item and send it to beach.debris@state.or.us
along with any relevant information.The
photo and information will be used by invasive species scientists to track the
debris and organisms living on it.

If you are able to move the item, then please do your part
to get it out of the ocean.Dispose of
small marine debris items—with or without living organisms on them—in a garbage
can off the beach or in a landfill. If you are too far from a disposal site,
remove the item from the water and place on dry land (above the high tide line)
so that any organisms living on it will die and not be returned to the ocean.

If you not able to move the item (it is too large to move),
notify the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department by email at beach.debris@state.or.us or call
211.

Never move debris with organisms on it to other bodies of
water—an aquarium, pond or estuary. This will increase the chance that invasive
species will spread.

Q6. How do I find out
more?A. Visit ODFW’s Marine Invasive Species page in the
Conservation section of the website under Invasive Species. It will be updated
regularly. http://tinyurl.com/oregonmarineinvasives

Dozens of local, state, and federal agencies are cooperating to respond to tsunami debris. In addition to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, three other state agencies are acting in lead roles:

On June 28, 2012 Governor Kitzhaber directed Oregon’s Office
of Emergency Management to lead the Oregon Tsunami Debris Task Force. The
office oversees an interagency team charged with incident preparedness and
response, public safety, cleanup, and public outreach to address marine debris
affecting Oregon's coastline.